Scientists One Step Closer to Eternal Life: Just Upload Your Brain

"One of the greatest challenges in trying to achieve immortality is overcoming the inevitable decay of the body. But maybe we’re thinking about this all wrong. Do we really need a physical presence if the mind can be preserved? And how close are we to being able to transfer our consciousness to a computer?" continues Sputnik International. 

Photo: Sputnik International

"Yesterday, Dr. Will Caster was only human." So reads the poster for 2014’s film "Transcendence." You know, the Johnny Depp flop churned out between "Pirates of the Caribbean 12: At Wits’ End" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 26: Geriatric Jack?" No?

It wasn’t received very well. But the concept – that a man’s consciousness can be downloaded to a computer – isn’t altogether bad. According to Martine Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics, it may not be entirely unrealistic, either.

"Taking a mind and offloading it to software is consistent with physics and it’s something that I think will be done in this century," Rothblatt said during an interview at eMerge Americas on Monday.

The technology is a long way off, of course, but as Rothblatt points out, science has already advanced far enough that we can transplant internal organs. It’s what United Therapeutics does every day, and it’s a concept that would have seemed just as fantastical 200 years ago.
Read more...

Source: Sputnik International